Chapter XXV: Reanimation Jutsu

"Zatanna, what's your answer?"

She looked up at him, "I'll do it."

Itachi smiled and reached out a hand that she accepted and shook, "Thank you. Let's get started now."

They both walked down the long staircase into the room where all the sacrifices were about thirty-one unconscious bodies in total. Itachi went to the corner of the room and picked up a bag with a DNA sample of each of the villains he wanted to use. He started walking around putting them on each body and when he reached the last body he pulled out a piece of Lois's hair and placed it on that body. Then he got into position.

Zatanna put her hands on Itachi's shoulders, "For this to work..... I need to make direct contact with you," she stated looking off to the side.

'She isn't as adamant about this kind of thing as the Titans were. But she is still clearly reluctant.'

Itachi started doing a few hand signs and slammed a hand on the ground. Symbols started appearing under all of the bodies and they started glowing.

"Itachi, I've been wondering something, all of your abilities revolve around Chakra, right?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Well you aren't able to revive these people on your own because none of them possess Chakra. With Magic it doesn't matter either way. Why is Chakra different?"

"Chakra is..... it isn't some mystic art like magic. Where I come from is our life force. Without it we would all die. Unless it's Ninjutsu or summoning, almost all of our abilities like sealing, illusions, etc rely on the other person having Chakra to suppress or manipulate. Even our souls contain Chakra, which is the main reason why reanimation is possible."

She tilted her head, "If that's the case then how do your illusions work?"

"The Sharingan sends Chakra directly to the brain through the eyes. Chakra becomes irrelevant in that case..... it's time, they're ready. Reanimation Jutsu!"

The bodies slowly dissipated and in their places thousands of pieces of paper started to slowly form into humanoid bodies. Eventually the glowing faded away and the ritual was complete. Thirty villains under the control of Itachi including Parasite, Grundy, Cheetah, Hyena, Grodd, Plastique, and many more stood waiting for orders. Along with Lois Lane.

Zatanna stood up and looked at them all with a slightly agape mouth. "You really did it. Can they think on their own though?"

He nodded, "If I let them then yes. They can be either under my control or have complete free will."

Zatanna got a closer look at some of them, "This surpasses any revival magic I know of."

"Sadly, it isn't perfect. Where I come from there is another revival ability that brings them back like they never died in the first place, although," he put a hand under his eye, "I don't possess the eyes necessary to do that. But this should be good enough."

The door opened and the Titans came into the room. Tim stated, "We finished delivering those two."

"That's good, we've just finished the reanimation."

Starfire asked, "So how will they give the Regime more trouble than they would have if they were alive?"

Itachi pointed at one of them, "Shoot through him. That will give you the answer."

Starfire raised a hand and shot through the villain. The wound was just shredded pieces of paper that regenerated after a few seconds. Itachi pointed at the healed wound, "They're immortal. Any wound dealt will heal in a few seconds. If any part of them is left then they will regenerate. Nothing short of complete annihilation will suffice. And Superman is really the only one that could do that."

Tim raised a brow, "So after they figure out that they can't beat them then what's stopping them from calling Superman over?"

"He'll have to be distracted or we'll have to cut communication."

Conner shook his head, "He has Super Hearing, and the others would notice the cut comms quickly. So we'll have to rely on a distraction. But what could realistically distract him long enough that he can't rescue them before we capture them?"

Itachi put a hand on his chin, "A distraction will present itself soon, either by Batman or something else. Let's wait for now."

Itachi turned to Lois and walked over to her. He performed a jutsu on her that hid the cracks in her skin and the black sclera. He ten reached into the back of Lois's head and pulled out a tag. After a few seconds she started blinking rapidly and looked around, "W... where am I?"

Itachi looked at the Titans, "Are you all alright with explaining everything to her for me?"

Wonder Girl walked up to Lois and put a hand on her shoulder and showed the way out the door, "We can explain, but we should get somewhere more comfortable."

All of the Titans left with Lois and Zatanna asked, "Couldn't she be used as a distraction to get the rest of the Regime? She might even get through to him."

Itachi looked down at the ground for a moment before looking back up and shaking his head, "To use his dead wife as a distraction to take him down would make him more blood lusted than ever, we should wait for something else."

The next morning Selena and Bruce were eating at a restaurant in disguises. "I just don't understand what it is that you're doing, Bruce."

"I'm not giving up."

"You've spent five years, pulling every trick out of your bag, and where are you? No closer to stopping him or the Regime. What's the point?"

His brow twitched, "He crossed lines that we can't ever cross, Selena. As someone who made her career crossing them, you have to understand that I can't let it go. What he did"-"Yeah, I know. He killed the Joker. Big loss to mankind."

"If that's how you feel then you might as well join the Regime."

"That's not what I'm saying. I know he's done so many awful things..."

"He murdered Oliver and Dinah."

"And Renee. I'm totally with you. I just need to know that we aren't just spitting in the wind. What's your plan?"

"Short term.... to mobilize as many super powered humans as I can to fight against the Regime, heroes, villians"-- she gestured a hand, "Sorry Bruce but what villians? Someone had them all killed."

"... It was Itachi."

She leaned back in her chair, "Itachi?"

"There's no one else who would do it."

She sighed and thought back to what Itachi said yesterday and it all made sense now, "Well Itachi's team has a lot of fire power we could use. Maybe it's time to put aside your differences and team back up ag"-"No, he's decided to cross that line again. He's just as bad as Superman."

She scoffed, "Bruce, are you serious? Even when we're at such a steep disadvantage you'll still preach about this kind of stuff?!"

He narrowed his eyes, "He brutally executed hundreds of people, Selena. If you think that's OK then you might as well join him."

She crossed her arms and looked down at the table for a moment, "That's not what I'm saying, but..... Listen, Bruce. We've failed at every turn and we have no one on our side but four non powered people. And as far as I know there are no other powered people to turn to, there's no shame in admitting it... you can't win, Bruce."

In the Hall Of Justice Hal handed Superman the folder he wanted on what happened at the Prison, "You're dismissed."

Hal scowled briefly before walking away. "Forty four missing bodies, and the rest were killed by a combination of blades, shuriken, burns, and water based attacks. Most likely culprit is... Itachi."

He crushed the armrest of his throne with his left arm and Wonder Woman walked in, "Is something wrong."

Superman took a deep breath and stood up, "Itachi has taught me a valuable lesson."

She tilted her head, "And what's that?"

He glared off into the distance, "Prisoners will just become thorns in my side later on down the line, they should just be killed to be done with them right there and then."

Down in Atlantis Itachi entered the room with the unconscious villains. At some point after bringing them back from The Trench, he had them in a dream-like state. But now was the time to break them out of that state.

He snapped his fingers and all of their eyes became wide open. They all sat up and either rubbed their heads or eyes. Although once they became aware of their surroundings their eyes all eventually landed on Itachi. Bane shot up off the ground and tried to punch Itachi, but Itachi just caught the hand with a normal fist.

Bane quickly realized just how much smaller his body was. He was still muscular, but not the hulking monster he was before, "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY VENOM!?"

"You don't get to have Venom anymore."

Deadshot observed the room, "Atlantis?"

"Correct. I've brought you here to talk. Your answers will decide your fate. So pay attention, Deadshot, Rouges, Bane, Livewire, Killer Frost, and....."

"My name's Kite Man."

Livewire's brow scrunched, "Who the hell is Kite Man?"

Kite Man looked at the other villians with a dropped jaw, "What do you mean who's Kite Man?!"

Killer Frost stated, "He must be a C.... no, probably D list villain."

His forehead tensed and he stood up, "D... D list!?" He turned to Bane, "Bane, you gotta know who I am. We've both fought Batman multiple times!"

Bane shook his head, "I've never seen you in my whole life."

Kite Man sat down defeated and Itachi cleared his throat. "Anyways, as I was saying. You're all here because my team believed that you could all turn a new leaf and stop being criminals. Some of you have even teamed up with heroes on occasions. If you need any kind of assistance to become better then I'll be all ears, but make no mistake. This isn't a kind hearted offer, it's an ultimatum."

Heatwave rubbed the back of his head, "So uhh... what happens if we don't become better?"

Itachi snapped his fingers and the reanimated villains started walking into the room. "Then you'll become a reanimated asset with no will of your own."

Their heads fell and they remained silent. Although this was only for a moment, "Mirror Master yelled, "The hell is wrong with you? What kind of hero does this?"

"I'm not a hero. I'm someone that's going to save lives before they're ever put in danger, "Itachi turned to the door, "It's dangerous for you all out there right now. So you can stay here and think about everything until I'm done with Superman."

Itachi went up the stairs and met the Titans in a Lounge. Tim walked up to him, "Itachi, you may want to see this."

He handed him a tablet that monitored the Satellites around Earth and they were picking up on a foreign object heading to Earth. Itachi squinted his eyes, "What is that?"

Tim smirked, "That's gonna be our distraction."

Itachi summoned all of his reanimations and they were all on their way to the surface. Itachi stated, "No one besides you four, Zatanna, and Aquaman know about Reanimation Jutsu. We have the element of surprise, although when they discover that they're immortal they'll be able to restrain all of them."

Starfire tilted her head, "You think that they could restrain guys like Parasite so easily?"

"One of the downsides of Reanimation jutsu is that they aren't at their full power, so when they stop holding back they won't stand a chance against guys like Yellow Lantern or Sinestro."

Tim raised a finger, "Which is why they'll be our first targets. The Reanimations will isolate everyone else from them."

They reached the surface and Itachi ordered his reanimations, "Cause chaos. But not enough to kill anyone. Only enough to get the Regime's attention.

Doomsday crashed into the Hall Of Justice. "Kill! I KILL YOU KAL-EL!"

As their fight began Cyborg called the rest of the Regime, "Guys, I am picking up reports of multiple villains causing trouble across America."

Hawgirl said, "What are the closest ones to us?"

The one in Denver is closest to you Hawkgirl, Raven, there's one for you in LA. Flash. You're closest to Minneapolis. And Sinestro and Hal, you're both near Orlando. And Dinah"-"Superman is fighting Doomsday right now! I'm going to help him."

Itachi and Co stood at the shore of Florida, "Alright.... Akatsuki. Let's go."